March Madison Matters

Celebrating the Boys & Girls Club!

Established in 1884, Madison built its first dedicated Clubhouse in 1939 under Herbert Hoover, then Chairman of the National Association of Boys Clubs. Today, our programs at four Clubhouses in the Bronx and Brooklyn serve more than 5,000 youth each year. As a proud founding member of Boys & Girls Club of America, we were thrilled to celebrate the tremendously positive influence on children and teens at the more than 4,100 Clubhouses across the country during Boys & Girls Club of America week.

For one week, our members took part in special celebratory activities at our Clubhouses that focused on Academic Success, Good Character & Citizenship, and the adoption of a Healthy Lifestyle.

Our Teen Pool Party was not only fun and active, but informational as well! Members took part in water safety games and had the opportunity to sign up for various level swim classes.

Older members of our SMART Girls Program decided to organize a service project right in their Clubhouse and hosted a variety of Big Red Chair times, when they would read to the younger members. Not only did it foster mentoring relationships, but it helped ignite a love of reading for our youngest members!

Clubhouses hosted an art gallery show, where members showcased various art projects they had created. Pieces were then selected to be submitted into the Boys & Girls Club of America Regional Art Gallery Festival to be held at our Thomas S. Murphy Clubhouse on April 16th!

Meet our 2016 Youth of the Year, Chassidy David!

Chassidy David joined the Thomas S. Murphy Clubhouse three years ago and has been a dedicated and involved member ever since! She is now a senior at Talent Unlimited High School and is a member of the National Honor Society. Her activities at the Club include serving as President of Keystone Club, and as a member of Project Graduate, SMART Girls, and the Youth Empowerment Program. Chassidy is also an integral part of the cultural enrichment department. Chassidy participates in a variety of theatre and drama programs outside of the Club as well, and has represented Madison at Radio City Music Hall through the Garden of Dreams Talent Show sponsored by the Garden of Dreams Foundation. She has also performed at the BGCA Northeast Regional Gala at the American Museum of Natural History.

During the Youth of the Year selection process Chassidy, along with Columbus Clubhouse’s Daquan Saxon, Joel E. Smilow’s Maylynn Rosario, and Navy Yard’s Kayla Williams, each gave speeches and answered questions about how they lives have changed as members.

Learning is EGGcellent at Madison!

What better way to learn about the life cycle of a chicken than to hatch one?! Members at our Navy Yard Clubhouse did just that in conjunction with our STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and support from our friends at the Victor Cruz Foundation. Members researched, designed, and created a homemade incubator and have been monitoring the eggs for the past two weeks. Stay tuned for the final results on our social media pages!

Women, along with members of the African American and Latino population, are startlingly scarce within the math and technology field so we at Madison are proud to offer this comprehensive program to all of our members!

A few members weighed-in on why the STEM program is important:

“Learning about science at the Clubhouse helps me so much with my science work at school.” –Quianna L.

“Getting to build something makes learning easier and way more fun than if we just had to sit and listen. I love being able to ask the Club staff questions because they always take the time to answer.” –Darius E.

“Getting to build projects and see how things work from start to finish makes learning so much more fun.” Trevaun T.